Digital organization is already a big part of life, but it's especially tough to go paperless in a world that's still filled with scraps of paper in the form of receipts, business cards, and various forms and documents. Coming to your rescue, however, is the Neat Company, purveyors of specialty scanners and services to help you tame not just the paper you've accumulated, but also to organize the data that's on it. The latest product from the company is the NeatConnect, a cloud-connected scanner and digital filing system that's set to hit stores in mid-October.

The NeatConnect makes digitizing and organizing your life even easier with a cloud-connected scanner that takes the scanning and OCR functions of previous offerings like NeatReceipts and NeatDesk, and connects directly to several popular cloud services. That includes NeatCloud, which does more than just store your data to the cloud; it also automatically adds contacts from business cards, sorts and stores receipts for tax purposes, and parses the data on documents for easy organization.

The desktop unit measures 7.5 by 11 by 8.7 inches (HWD), and features a flat white front with a touch interface. On top are three paper guides, designed to let you scan business cards, receipts, and standard documents with ease. Each document slot will hold and scan up to 15 documents each, in rapid succession, so you can put a stack of business cards and a handful of receipts into the scanner, and it will crank through them in short order.

Seeing the NeatConnect in action, it was impressive enough how well the scanner handled documents of all shapes and sizes. Business cards and receipts zipped through in moments, and documents scanned easily, with speeds up to 24 pages per minute, with black and white or color options and single or duplex scanning. The NeatConnect also has an extendable arm to support longer documents, and the removable front plate opens up the document-specific slots to accommodate larger documents, up to 50 pages, or 100 pages with duplex scanning.

The device features a small touch interface, modeled after a smartphone, with an app-like design and intuitive controls. The NeatConnect has built-in Wi-Fi capability with 802.11n compatible WLAN, letting you scan documents directly to your preferred services without connecting to a desktop or laptop PC. That functionality is still there, however, thanks to an optional USB cable. The device comes with a first-time user tutorial, which walks new users through the initial steps of connecting to Wi-Fi, setting up an account with NeatCloud (Neat's proprietary cloud service), and the first scan using the device.

The cloud-connected scanner then gives you the option of either sending the scanned data directly to NeatCloud or any of several other cloud services, such as Evernote, Google Drive, DropBox, Box, or even good old-fashioned email. In addition to these connected options, you can also save data externally to an SD card. Once uploaded to NeatCloud, all of your documents can be accessed via PC, tablet, or smartphone, and Neat has integrated several features into the service that allow for easier organization in addition to standard OCR for searchable text. NeatCloud is a subscription service, with single-user personal plans starting at $5.99 per month or annual plans starting at $59.88.

Small businesses and families alike can make use of the NeatConnect thanks to multiple user settings, including secure PIN-based profiles, allowing up to 25 users to scan directly to their preferred cloud storage and organizational services without worrying about others accessing their usernames and passwords.

NeatConnect will be selling for $499, with a 3-month trial subscription of NeatCloud service included.

About the Author

Brian Westover is an Analyst for the Hardware Team, reviewing laptops, desktops, and storage devices.
As a child, Brian was frequently asked "What do you want to be when you grow up?" His answer alternated between Superman and Batman. This was cute when he was five, but worrisome at seventeen. Naturally, he is now a journalist, writing about tec... See Full Bio

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